11 Sep 1939
  • British submarine Triton tropedoed and sank British submarine Oxley by mistake. ww2dbase [CPC]
  • HMS Cumberland on passage to Rio de Janeiro. Aircraft sighted German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee and tanker Altmark but enemy ships escaped interception. ww2dbase [Admiral Graf Spee | Cumberland | DS]
Germany
  • Georg von Küchler was awarded Clasp 2nd Class to his Iron Cross. ww2dbase [Georg von Küchler | CPC]
  • "Lord Haw-Haw", began broadcasting his "Germany calling" programme on Radio Hamburg. The name was eventually linked to William Joyce, a US citizen who had spent some time in Ireland, had been Propaganda Director of Oswald Moseley's (qv) British Union of Fascists and who had fled to Berlin a week before the outbreak of war. By 1940 30 per cent of the British population would be regularly tuning in to Radio Hamburg for his programme. ww2dbase [William Joyce | Hamburg | AC]
Poland
  • Wolfgang Falck shot down two Polish aircraft, a bomber and a reconnaissance aircraft. ww2dbase [Wolfgang Falck | CPC]
Saudi Arabia
  • Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic relations with Germany. ww2dbase [CPC]
United Kingdom
  • Air Vice Marshal Arthur Harris assumed command of British Royal Air Force Bomber Command's Lincolnshire-based No. 5 Group with his headquarters at St. Vincent's House in Grantham. No. 5 Group was the sole operator of the Handley-Page Hampden bomber with six Hampden squadrons available at the outbreak of war - Nos. 44 and 50 Squadrons based at Waddington, 49 and 83 Squadrons based at Scampton, and 61 and 144 Squadrons at Hemswell. Harris would command the group for fourteen months before being appointed G. O. C. Bomber Command on 22 Feb 1942. ww2dbase [Arthur Harris | AC]
United States
  • Franklin Roosevelt wrote to Winston Churchill and Neville Chamberlain, encouraging them to communicate with him personally, ie. bypass the official diplomatic channels. ww2dbase [Franklin Roosevelt | CPC]
Photo(s) dated 11 Sep 1939
Wilhelm Keitel in a staff car, Lodz, Poland, Sep 1939German troops of SS-Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler Division resting during a campaign toward Pabianice, Poland, Sep 1939Boy with caged canary in ruins, Warsaw, Poland, Sep 1939

Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, Hugh Martyr, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis




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Blood chit carried by pilots of the American Volunteer Group 'Flying Tigers'; note serial number 0543

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